Football’s First Defender

Before today's "Double Red Club" game officially starts, Liverpool officials will still conduct a brief but significant pre-match ceremony.

Players from Liverpool and Manchester United lined up in their respective halfs to pay tribute to a great British football legend after guessing the side.

At this time, all the fans at Anfield gave a standing ovation, and the players on both sides of the bench also stood and applauded. This one-minute applause was dedicated to the meritorious coach in Liverpool football history, Bill Shankly.

Today is the 100th birthday of Shankly. As the symbol of the spirit of the "Red Army", Shankly's famous saying "Football has nothing to do with life and death, but football is higher than life and death" is the best interpretation of the spirit of the "Red Army".

The TV broadcast shot was transferred to the famous KOP stand at Anfield Stadium in good time. The fans used the official red or white shirts placed on the seats to form a pattern of players with open arms to celebrate. After the player pattern, there are numbers. The pattern composed of 100 represents the 100th anniversary of Shankly's birth.

As the most successful coach in England before Ferguson, a football philosopher, it was Shankly who created the Liverpool dynasty and made Liverpool the best team in England at that time, none of them.

At today's commemorative ceremony, Liverpool officials also invited many of Shankly's children and descendants. They entered the stadium to remember their ancestors together with Liverpool fans.

This kind of football culture, the inheritance of football as an emotional bond, may be the reason why these football holy places in Europe can always have enough people who love football.

Standing on the field, Yang Feng looked at the inheritance of football love for decades and hundreds of years, looked at the nostalgia for history of Liverpool fans, and felt that the burden on his shoulders was even heavier for the expectations of the current team. Some.

Such lovely fans deserve a long-lost English top league championship in return for their decades of perseverance.

With the referee's whistle, this much-anticipated "Double Red Club" game officially began. After the previous ceremony, the fans at the scene did not sit down immediately, but all kept standing, and sang the most representative song of Liverpool "You will never walk alone".

The Anfield stadium was filled with the neat singing of the Liverpool fans. Inspired by the singing of the fans, the Liverpool players performed very hard from the beginning.

After Manchester United kicked off, Liverpool directly pressed forward to launch a high-pressure press in the frontcourt.

This kind of opening press affected Manchester United's offensive organization in the midfield. They could only pass the ball back to the penalty area. The central defender Vidic played the ball and found the left back Evra to avoid Liverpool's midfield press defense. , Evra dribbled the ball forward directly.

Liverpool's pressing moved quickly, but Evra's pass was quicker, with a short pass to Carrick who responded not far away.

Carrick dribbled the ball diagonally away from Liverpool's weak defensive position and advanced quickly.

Liverpool's opening press was still too fierce. Carrick found the space between many Liverpool defenders and dribbled forward. There were four Liverpool players around Carrick, but at the first moment, they all There was no way to stop his advance.

When Liverpool finally had a defensive player and caught up with Carrick, Carrick made a diagonal through ball and found Ashley Young who advanced forward on the left.

Taking advantage of Glenn Johnson's defense not in place, Ashley Young directly stopped the ball on the left and completed the cross.

Inside the penalty area, Manchester United has Welbeck and Van Persie outflanking them.

But Yang Feng took the lead in rushing out. After accurately judging that Welbeck in the front point would definitely take off the high ball, he defended Van Persie with all his strength and used his normal body to fight, which affected Van Persie's take-off height. Van Persie headed high and headed the ball out of the penalty area first.

Yang Feng's header hit the space on the left side of the team, but Manchester United's veteran Ryan Giggs, who had a very positive opening performance, took a step ahead of Lucas and got the ball.

Afterwards, Giggs took two steps forward in his position on the right, and before Jose Enrique's defense was in place, he sent another arc cross with a half-high ball. However, at this time, Van Persie, who Giggs was counting on, was firmly blocked by Yang Feng. The pass to the small penalty area was caught by Mignolet without any pressure.

In the first 20 seconds of the game, Manchester United organized two consecutive attacks, which played a leading role. In this game, although Moyes was a little conservative in the formation, it seemed that the Manchester United players played in the double red meeting. In the middle, there is no plan to play a defensive counterattack with peace of mind.

Although the Liverpool players wanted to launch a threatening attack quickly, they told Manchester United that this is Anfield.

But today Manchester United deployed a considerable number of defensive players in the midfield, allowing the two sides to strangle directly in the midfield.

You come and go, the ball is switching between each other, and no one can find a comfortable opportunity to move forward.

Moreover, the movements of the players on both sides are very big. Whether it is Van Persie who wants to act as a fulcrum to catch the ball, or Sturridge from Liverpool, who wants to catch the ball with his back and defend the players behind him. There was no way to comfortably complete the technical movement of catching the ball with their backs, and in the end they were all regained by the defender.

It can be seen that today's referee is very knowledgeable, and in such a fierce game as the Double Red Club, he gave a very loose penalty scale.

When there is no good opportunity to break through from the middle, it is necessary to use scheduling to try to open the situation on the side.

Manchester United's defensive press today is mainly concentrated in their own half. Although all players retreated to the half, there are still 4 players, almost stepping on the midfield line, ready to defend Liverpool's midfielders who are advancing with the ball.

For Liverpool, the ball passed the backcourt players and was transferred to Jose Enrique on the left.

On Enrique's breakthrough line, Giggs was waiting in front of him. He had no intention of competing with Giggs. Enrique chose to pass a long pass in the midfield and directly passed it near the arc of the penalty area. I hope Stuart Ricky can finish the point and try to finish a play.

It's just that under the double defense of Vidic and Evra, it was not easy for Sturridge to fight. He was stuck by Vidic and Evra headed to Carrick in front of the penalty area. .

Carrick knew that there were Liverpool players coming up behind him, so he didn't dare to play with fire in this area, and passed the ball directly to Ashley Young who was not far away.

It's just that Evra's header cleared the siege. It was a bounced ball that landed in front of Carrick. In a hurry, Carrick handled the ball in the right direction, but the speed of the ball was still slow. a little.

The very active old Liverpool captain Gerrard quickly advanced, ahead of Ashley Young, intercepted and grabbed the ball.

This is the game. The enthusiasm of the Liverpool players is very important to every competition for the ball.